PHILADELPHIA — They all put on their pinstriped white jerseys almost four hours before the first pitch Wednesday afternoon and hiked to center field. This day, of all days, was the team photo. Rob Thomson walked to the risers with Kyle Schwarber. Everybody smiled. The 2024 Philadelphia Phillies posed for a few minutes, tugged off their jerseys, then went back to work.
Soon, the schedule changed. It was unexpected; workouts on the field and in the weight room were interrupted to gather everyone inside the clubhouse. The Phillies had a meeting, according to multiple team sources.
Some things just had to be said. The Phillies, who had the worst record in the National League since the All-Star break, faced questions about whether they needed a change. This was a chance to reaffirm the belief held in the manager’s office and among the players. This is the right group. It’s time to make it better.
“What happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse,” Thomson said before a cathartic 9-4 win over the Miami Marlins. “That’s between them.”
Team meetings are good for headlines. They make for tidy narratives. They are typically reserved for teams that are not in first place. Whatever was said — no team personnel would comment on the meeting’s existence — was only as good as the next nine innings. And the nine innings after that.
“The way we’ve been playing, obviously, has been unacceptable,” Bryce Harper said. “But we just have to keep going. Everybody in here knows what to do and how to do their job. If you’re not walking in here every day ready to do your job, you probably shouldn’t be here.”
That’s a message. Schwarber, who might have said a little something in that meeting, is the heart of these Phillies. He took a swing in the fourth inning that meant more than anything he said. His opposite-field grand slam turned a three-run deficit into a Phillies lead.
THANK YOU KYLE pic.twitter.com/98IznISiTA
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) August 15, 2024
They won a game at Citizens Bank Park for the first time in 18 days. The Phillies are 22-3 when Schwarber homers.
“Schwarbs seems to come up with some big home runs when we really need it,” Thomson said. “It was good to see.”
So, maybe this is the beginning of the Phillies’ return to form. Maybe not. They will take it. The Phillies had not homered in 32 innings. They need to hit home runs to succeed. But, to load the bases for Schwarber, Bryson Stott singled and J.T. Realmuto walked and Johan Rojas beat out an infield single.
And, in the seventh inning, they even had four consecutive at-bats for hits. Harper doubled to the opposite field. Alec Bohm singled up the middle. Stott doubled to right. Realmuto poked an opposite-field double to right that plated two runs. The lineup looked dynamic again.
“It seems like as soon as we started to use the field, stay the other way,” Thomson said, “we started to score runs.”
That is another message.
“I believe in the group,” Nick Castellanos said. “I believe in the guys in this clubhouse. Everybody’s a professional. And, even though we haven’t been winning a bunch of games, it’s not because all of a sudden we’re not working or we don’t care. Right? Everybody cares. And, at the end of the day, that’s all you can ask for. Because I’ve been in clubhouses that don’t care.”
That message has been repeated over and over in the last few weeks. These Phillies care, which is a nice thought. It is true. They are a close group and have bonded over surprise success in 2022 and sudden heartbreak in 2023. Sometimes, it’s good to remember a lot of other people care. It was a Wednesday night in August against a last-place team without a stadium giveaway and there were 42,577 people in the seats. They were quiet for the first few innings. They have wanted to run through a wall for this team but instead have banged their heads against it for weeks. A dream summer guarantees nothing in October, but this was supposed to be a party.
Then, Schwarber took a hack. Was it relieving?
“I think it was just more energy, right?” Schwarber said. “You could feel it in the in the stadium. That was a cool thing, right?
“I feel like our guys are doing a really good job of weathering whatever has happened the last couple weeks. We haven’t been playing our best baseball. We have a really good group of guys in this clubhouse. We got the right guys to get through this and come out better for it.”
That was the message after the Phillies were silenced Tuesday night. The message has sounded the same during the good times and the bad times. Nothing about what the Phillies do in the regular season matters unless they soar in October. They have to get there; a 61-32 start to the season all but guaranteed a postseason berth.
So, they put it on cruise control. It wasn’t hard to blame them. But someone needs to steer again. An honest chat among friends never hurt anyone.
“There have been meetings where players aired grievances, and it was amazing,” Castellanos said. “Because it needed to get aired. There are also meetings that start and only one person is talking. Nobody else opens their mouth. And it goes terribly. So there’s no rhyme or reason. Some work and some don’t.”
It works when the guy atop the batting order slugs a grand slam.
“The energy was there with us,” Schwarber said. “Keep it going.”
(Photo of Kyle Schwarber: Bill Streicher / USA Today)
